for status / meme purposes, there is a social media based platform that can be tried: Sphere (SAT) & Futurepia (PIA)
they have a coin reward system, and already in coinmarketcap, their platform still has active users until now.
he must have been aware of all the projects similar to steemit. so if think he can do it better than the teams who had previously come up with something then there is no reason to continue what he is doing. he just have to make sure its better of people will just be disappointed. and we have enough disappointments already after several projects gone bad and coins being dead. so it better be good.